


From the Start

by heeroluva



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Community: trekmas, M/M, Tarsus IV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-06
Updated: 2014-01-06
Packaged: 2018-01-07 18:37:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1123055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/heeroluva/pseuds/heeroluva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spock's on the ship that receives Tarsus IV's distress signal. What he finds is certainly not expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From the Start

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dark_Labyrinth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_Labyrinth/gifts).



The distress call had reached them five days ago, the broadcast originating twenty days prior. Upon landing, Spock’s father ordered him to stay aboard the ship as he went with part of the crew in search of survivors. Scans showed them holed up in the main compound. The small signal to the north, too small to be humanoid was passed off as insignificant.

Spock, however, was not so easily convinced. Tarsus IV had no native animals as his elders had noted. There was the possibility that it was an escaped pet of some sort, but given the strict regulations about the introduction of animals to colonies such as this one, it was highly unlikely. The logical thing to do was investigate the source. 

Spock took it upon himself to do just that.

The terrain was a savanna, the climate humid, causing his clothes to stick to him in an unfamiliar way. After nearly an hour, the trees began to thin, grass giving way to rocky soil as the grade gradually increased. Twenty minutes later saw him nearing a tall rock outcropping, the beeping of his scanner steadily increasing with each step.

Spock certainly didn’t expect an adolescent canid, a wolf of Earth origin, to dart out from a barely visible crevice, its hackles high and teeth bared. Spock considered his options before crouching down hands low and palm up, non- threatening. It was a risk, but it had the highest chance of succeeding. “You likely cannot understand a word that I am saying to you, but I mean you no harm.”

Ears dropped low as the wolf hesitantly stepped forward before sniffing at Spock’s out-stretched fingers. A hesitant lick was followed by a whine as he suddenly dashed around Spock to nose at the pack that he’d dropped in his surprise.

Mindful of the sharp teeth, Spock reached for the bag and unzipped it, pulling out the ration packets that he’d packed before he left. Snatching it, the creature ran around him, disappearing into the crevice that he’d come from. Spock followed, squeezing into a space nearly too small for him.

The light ahead was unexpected, as was the large chamber that he entered into. He certainly hadn’t foreseen the group of children that circled the wolf. The oldest one, a teenage girl, tore open the packages and distributed the food among the group. Spock noted how the youngest children received the largest portions.

Standing, Spock was greeted by a piercing scream of “JT!” that had all the children scrambling to get behind the wolf.

Spock’s brow rose as he trotted over to Spock and sat beside him tail wagging.

“I mean you no harm. My father’s ship picked up the distress signal. We’ve come to offer our assistance.”

The children hesitated still unsure, but the wolf appeared to nod and one by one they made their way out.

Spock could make no sense of the situation: how a wolf had ended up on this planet, why these children were clearly living in this cave and had been for a number of weeks, why the wolf displayed unerring intelligence.

Upon exiting, Spock was greeting by the stern face of his father and the rest of the ground team.

A phaser was suddenly raised, and Spock moved to stand in front of the wolf as he was the last to exit the cave.

“This creature is not a threat. He was protecting the children.”

“That is illogical. In a situation such as this, faced with starvation, the wolf should have killed them,” Pravis said, phaser still raised.

Sarek’s hand was suddenly there, pressing it down as a child moved in between it and JT.

The child, a boy, fisted his hands into the wolf's fur so hard that it had to have hurt, but the wolf didn’t fight against it, didn’t seem to notice. “JT would never hurt us! He keeps us safe and brings us food!”

“That is—”

“Enough,” Sarek said, voice firm and boding no argument. “Now is not the time for such matters. These children need food and care. All questions can wait.” Turning to Spock he said, “Spock, we will have words tonight.”

A cool nose pushed into his hand and Spock glanced down at JT wondering what to make of this strange creature who acted nothing like what he knew of wolves.

***************************

The lecture that greeted Spock wasn’t unexpected. The scratching at his door later that evening was. “Come in,” Spock said, the door opening at his command. JT trotted through before settling on the floor before Spock. “You are a very strange creature.”

Spock jumped to his feet as the wolf’s body suddenly rippled in a way that might have been horrifying if it was not so fascinating. Slowly the hair retreated and the body lengthened, paws were replaced with fingers and toes. Moments later a dirty, naked, and far too thin blonde teen was kneeling before him, panting, eyes squeezed shut as though in pain.

“Spock,” the boy said, he voice raspy as though long disused. “Thank you. For saving them. I apologize for growling at you. I thought you were one of Kodos’ men.” Suddenly he prostrated himself, pressing his head against the floor near Spock’s feet. “I am in your debt. My life is yours.”

There was a strange formality to the words as though it was part of a ceremony, and Spock felt his hair stand on end.

Spock drew upon the memory of the fantasy tales that his mother had enjoyed reading to him as a child. Spock had never quite understood their purpose, but they made his mother happy, so he had dutifully listened. In one, he recalled a story of a man who turned into a wolf on the night of the full moon.

A werewolf. Something that should not have existed, something that made no sense on a biological level, and if Spock had not just seen the transformation before his own eyes, he would still believe it a fantasy.

That left the problem of JT’s last words. He seemed to feel that he owed Spock a life debt of some sort. “Your gratitude is welcome, but you owe me no debt. It was not I who picked up the distress signal, nor was I the person who made the decision to go to Tarsus IV.”

“No, but you’re the one who came to us. I heard them talking, how they never would have found the children if they hadn’t followed you. I owe you my life and theirs.”

“You owe me nothing.”

“Please,” JT begged, voice cracking in a way that made Spock distinctly uncomfortable.

“Vulcans do not condone slavery, and your words seem to imply something akin to such. However, I will offer you my friendship and accept yours in return if you will have it.”

JT seemed to consider the offer for a moment before agreeing with a hesitant nod.

***************************

Explaining JT to his father was far easier than Spock had expected. As Earth’s Ambassador, Sarek was privy to certain details that even much of its own population didn’t know.

JT hadn’t known of his heritage until Tarsus IV, when the change had washed over him when trying to protect one of the children that had been deemed unworthy. JT had made his first kill that day, but it was far from his last. Learning that Kodos was dead did little to ease JT’s anguish over the events that had happened, over the deaths that he had caused and those that he had been unable to prevent.

Despite JT’s protests, Sarek arranged for him to stay with a pack on Earth, but promised that he could come to visit Spock for part of his summer vacation if he didn’t get into trouble.

***************************

Spock wondered if “trouble” was Jim’s—don’t call me JT—middle name, when Spock called him to tell him about his decision to join Starfleet and was greeting by Jim’s smiling face, adorned by both a split lip and a black eye.

Seeing Spock’s look, Jim huffed and glanced away, petulant. “He deserved it.”

“I do not doubt that, however, you must learn restraint. Christopher won’t be able to bail you out of trouble forever. I do not know why he humors you so.”

“It’s the puppy dog eyes. No one can say no to them.” Jim put on the face as an example.

“I can.”

Jim pouted. “I know, and it sucks.”

***************************

Somehow despite being on Earth, Spock saw less of Jim than when he’d been on Vulcan. Starfleet took up an unexpectedly large amount of his time.

Finding Jim in his quarters after class shouldn’t have been such a shock, but Spock was truly happy to see him.

The grin that split Jim’s face at the sight of Spock was almost painful to look at. “Spock! Look! I got in!” Jim shoved a crumbled paper into Spock’s hand.

The letterhead was Starfleet and familiar. “Congratulations, Jim. There was no doubt.”

***************************

“You cheated.”

Jim’s eyes were wide with mock innocence. “I won.”

“By cheating.”

“I thought outside the box.”

“You managed to install and activate a subroutine in the programming code, thereby changing the conditions of the test.”

“Admit it, you’re impressed.”

“Of course. That still does not change the fact that you cheated.”

“You still gave me a passing grade.”

“Jim, you proved on Tarsus IV that you could win against a no-win scenario.”

Jim’s face darkened and he turned away. “That wasn’t a win.”

***************************

“Jim, the statistical likelihood that our plan will succeed is less than—”

Jim’s hands grabbed his head, mouth slanting over his in a kiss. “It’ll work.”

“Jim, I need you to know—”

“Spock, it’ll work!”

Spock watched him go, wishing that he had Jim’s faith.

***************************

They’d survived. Inexplicably. Unexpected. Too many had not been so lucky.

“Spock, I’m yours.”

Spock opened his mouth to protest as he had many times before, but Jim continued anyway.

“I was from the start. Nothing will change that. Just like nothing will change that you’re mine.”

 _Mine._ An exchange that went both ways. Something that Spock had not considered before. Spock decided that he quite liked the idea.

“Yes.”

“Yes?” Jim clearly hadn’t expected that response.

“Yes. You are mine and I am yours. We are t’hy’la.”

“T’hy’la?” Jim asked, testing the unfamiliar words.

Spock captured his mouth in a kiss and proceeded to show him exactly what it meant.


End file.
